Member Article

Sheffield building consultancy firm Monaghans helps retailer John Lewis expand

Sheffield-based Monaghans has been engaged by retailer John Lewis to project manage new department stores in Birmingham, Leeds and Westfield London.

The company have already completed work on new format John Lewis stores in Exeter, Devon and in Ashford, Kent.

There are also on-going schemes in York and at Heathrow’s new Terminal 2.

Monaghans said they had seen a significant boost in demand in the last 12 months for its services both in the UK and abroad, delivering successful programmes for the likes of Harrods, Tommy Hilfiger, Polo Ralph Lauren, Primark and TK Maxx.

Craig Hibbert, group managing director for Monaghans said: “Our expertise means we are successfully delivering projects right across the retail spectrum from established brands to new embryonic retailers.”

At Exeter, John Lewis engaged Monaghans as project managers on a scheme to deliver a new store format with new architectural, shop fit and catering concepts.

A collaborative way of working was agreed with the developer Land Securities to significantly overlap shell and fit-out works to deliver the store opening approximately six months earlier than a traditional developers shell fit-out would have achieved.

Simon Turner, Director for Monaghans, said “This new format allowed John Lewis to reach customers in areas where a traditional department store would not be feasible.”

The store recently won the award for ‘Best Large Format Store of the Year’ and was highly commended in the ‘Best Department Store of the Year’ category at the Retail Week Interiors Awards 2013; won Best Store Design at the Drapers Awards 2013 and Best Refurbishment and/or Extension over £5m at the BCSC Gold Awards.

Tony Jacob, head of construction, environment and engineering for John Lewis, said: “The Ashford project was delivered to an extremely aggressive programme - it is testament to the Monaghans team to have led the construction and fit out supply chain so effectively to enable John Lewis and their customers local to Ashford to benefit from the critical festive trading period.”

John Lewis has said it ‘outperformed’ the market in the run-up to Christmas, with like-for-like sales rising by 6.9% to £734m.

Tan Khan, regional director for Monaghans based in Quayside House, Sheffield, said “This is an exciting period for Monaghans and we are well positioned for further growth in the retail, residential and commercial sectors in the New Year as the recovery in the economy starts to push on.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .